


The Tucson Inn

by FrozenMemories



Series: Femslash February 2020 [6]
Category: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Crossover, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:00:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22590625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrozenMemories/pseuds/FrozenMemories
Summary: So what if Mandy and Jill met at a forensics conference?Because they both deserved a lot better.
Relationships: Mandy Webster/Jill Morgan
Series: Femslash February 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1632643
Comments: 11
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't fact check anything and I've never been to Tucson, I just randomly picked the setting from a map.

Mandy was fighting hard against the urge to bounce in her seat in excitement. It wasn’t often that she got out of the city, except for the occasional visit to her parents back home, so she was looking forward to the welcome change of scenery. Tucson, Arizona wouldn’t have been her first choice, but that’s where the Forensics’ Academy was taking her and so she wasn’t going to complain. She wasn’t really one for traveling on her own but she was sure her ability to mix well would get her into contact with some of those fellow nerds in no time.

She let her eyes roam around the already crowded auditorium, taking in the many faces, or rather the many backs of people’s heads she was facing from her seat in one of the back rows. Socializing would probably have to wait until after the first lecture. For now she was just eager to soak up new information and to expand her knowledge and field of expertise. Not that she was looking for a change in profession, she loved her job and the people she worked with dearly, but it couldn’t hurt to learn and she was grateful for the opportunity to go, despite the recent budget cuts.

“Excuse me, is this seat taken?” A voice brought her out of her musings. Looking up from her pile of papers she was met by the friendly face of a curly haired woman with dark framed glasses. At first glance she estimated her to probably be just a little younger than herself. Mandy smiled and hastily scrambled the scattered belongings of her purse back into it before removing it from the seat next to her.

“Not anymore,” she replied, setting her bag on the floor between her feet. “Thanks,” the woman smiled and dropped a stack of pamphlets and a writing pad down onto the folding table of her chair, “I was afraid I’d have to stand in a corner for a whole 90 minutes, and I’m wearing the wrong shoes for that.”

A quick glance around revealed that there were hardly any vacant seats left, even though the lecture wasn’t supposed to begin for another fifteen minutes.

“There’s always the option of sitting on the floor,” Mandy quipped with an easy grin, to which her new seat neighbor playfully groaned, “had enough of that in College. I was always late for my courses and had to take the leftover seats.”

Mandy laughed, “Sounds familiar.”

“So anyway,” the blonde continued conversationally, “Thanks for saving me from that.” She gave Mandy another warm smile and extended her hand, “I’m Jill by the way.”

“Mandy,” she offered in return.

It didn’t take a full five minutes for them to deduce that they were both prone to nervous babbling and chattering and could talk without pausing for breath. The remaining time until the lecture began flew by faster than either of them could finish a roundup of their respective professional backgrounds and how they had ended up attending the seminar.

Mandy was instantly intrigued.

She found it hard to suppress the urge to keep talking to her new acquaintance during the course of the lecture. Between paying attention and taking notes she continually noted little things she felt the need to point out: The weird intonation of the speaker up front, the funny way the hair of the guy in front of them stuck up, reminding her of a cartoon character from her childhood, the older guy two rows ahead who looked like his eyes were going to fall shut any second. Glancing at Jill she noticed that the other woman had just looked in the same direction and was obviously struggling to contain a giggle at the sight. Their eyes met and they both huffed a tiny chuckle and pressed their lips together respectively as not to be rude.

The whole exchange reminded Mandy of her best friend from high school, whom she could communicate with solely through looks – which didn't mean they wouldn't spend every second of recess and lunch break incessantly chatting away with each other. She made a mental note to phone said friend again, ever since she’d gotten married they had spend a lot less time talking to each other.

“As compelling as this is I think my butt is falling asleep,” Jill whispered under her breath, pulling Mandy back into the present.

“Yours too, eh?” she whispered back before sharing a sympathetic smile with Jill.

They made it through another twenty minutes in silence, sharing knowing glances and little smirks.

“Wanna grab lunch together?” Jill asked as soon as the speaker announced the end of her presentation.

“I’m starving!” Mandy exclaimed enthusiastically, “But I really don’t feel like sitting anymore.”

“Oh yeah,” Jill sighed, “Same.”

“Do you want to go for a little walk? I’ve never been to Tucson before, maybe we’ll discover something exciting.”

Their easy banter continued during the quick stop at the buffet where they each picked foods they could eat on the go, and the following thirty minute walk through the admittedly rather plain streets of the city. They did find a small park with a little bit of green though.

Mandy found herself enjoying the company more than she would have ever expected from a random stranger she’d barely known for a day, but somehow there was an instant familiarity between her and Jill that she had the inexplicable urge to address. Never one to keep her thoughts to herself she stopped and put a hand on Jill’s arm.

“Look, I hope this doesn’t sound strange, considering we’ve only just met this morning, but I really like you and I guess I just want you to know.” The words were out before she could contemplate if they’d make her come off weird in any way.

To her relief Jill smiled in return. “I really like you, too. This day has been so nice.”

They continued their walk in silence - for all of half a minute.

“We should probably head back for the _environmental forensics seminar_ , especially if we want actual seats,” Jill pondered, to which Mandy quickly added, “Especially if we want adjoining seats.”

She blushed a little when she realized how that sounded. “I mean… you know…”

Jill grinned. “Of course we’ll sit together,” she beamed.

They were lucky enough to find two vacant seats, though not quite next to each other. Still, they sat close enough to be in viewing distance.

Throughout the lecture Mandy couldn’t shake the feeling of having eyes on her and surely, every time she turned to throw a look back over her shoulder Jill would look up shyly from her notes and smile.

It was crazy, she thought. She was probably reading too much into it, imagining things. She'd better be careful not to risk this blossoming friendship by misinterpreting those looks as anything but joy over having found a like minded soul in a crowd of various types of nerds.

“Gosh, that guy next to me was chewing on his pencil the whole two hours through,” Jill muttered as soon as they caught up with each other in the lobby a while later. Mandy snorted, “I saw that. He was also checking you out.”

Jill’s eyes dropped to the floor and the color in her cheeks brightened. Mandy couldn't help but nudge her in the arm playfully. “You’re quite the sight, girlfriend.” She immediately cursed her big mouth and tried to hide her embarrassment behind a nervous giggle. Jill, obviously uncomfortable, shrugged and dismissed the comment by changing the topic.

“So, um, there is an open panel on forensic anthropology, care to check that out?”

Relieved that she hadn’t driven her new friend away with her boldness Mandy smiled and pushed her glasses back up her nose.

“Definitely.”

“So what hotel are you staying at?” Mandy asked casually when the last scheduled event of the day was done.

“Oh, the boss booked me into the _Tucson Inn_ , it looks pretty nice and it’s just down the block from here. You?”

“Mine is not too far from here, either. I barely had time to check in though, I haven’t seen much beyond my single bed room. It seemed clean at least.”

“Mine has a bar that looked quite fancy, would you, um, like to check that out later?” Jill asked, tucking her hair behind her ear, “Unless of course you have other plans, or are fed up with me already.”

“No way!” Mandy beamed, “You got yourself a date, girl!” 


	2. Chapter 2

After spending more time than usual on her choice of outfit and hair-do – not that she had packed a whole lot of clothes for the short trip – Mandy wondered what the hell was suddenly wrong with her. Despite her earlier joke she wasn’t going on a date, she’d just have drinks with a nice girl at a hotel bar. But Jill was pretty and she seemed to have a knack for fashion so Mandy didn’t want to embarrass herself next to her much more attractive new friend. Whatever _fancy_ entailed in her book, Mandy was at least going to make sure she looked nice for the occasion.

When they met a while later the nervousness and uncertainty Mandy had worried herself with vanished as soon as Jill greeted her with an enthusiastic hug and a smile. It truly felt like meeting an old friend. In no time they had ordered their first round of cocktails which led to a lengthy exchange of their respective tastes in beverages that soon spiraled into sharing stories of drunken adventures.

Over the course of more drinks and a lot of laughter Mandy learned that Jill was indeed a few years younger than her, that she had a younger sister and was raised by a single mom, she owned a cat named Charlie and she had a collection of more than fifty pairs of shoes. Jill also seemed to have a soft spot for a great number of people she worked with and she spoke of them with such fondness that Mandy was inclined to ask for a transfer to this ominous Think Tank Jill sounded so very proud of.

Though when it was her turn she was just as ardently sharing stories from the Crime Lab, involving her fellow lab rats. Jill giggled at that term and Mandy shrugged pointedly, “Well, that’s exactly what we are. There’s even a board game named after us.”

“There’s a what?” Jill giggled again as she absently fiddled with the straw of her cocktail, “You’ve got to tell me more.”

Mandy laughed and straightened her back. “Alright,” she said, “here goes.”

She was in the middle of retelling another one of Hodges’ so called _thought experiments_ when she noticed Jill suppressing a yawn.

“Oh jeez, I’m sorry,” she blurted, interrupting her own story, “I’m boring you with this, aren’t I?”

Jill’s eyes widened behind her glasses. “Oh, gosh, no!” she was quick to point out, “this is hilarious, really. I’m just feeling a little tired. It’s gotten really late, plus I think the alcohol is getting to me.” She smiled coyly.

Mandy glanced at her watch and was startled to see how much time had passed between their easily flowing conversation and their several colorful cocktails. “Shit!” she exclaimed, “I didn’t even notice the time fly past. I’m sorry, I work the night shift, I’m used to these ungodly hours.”

Jill lifted her glasses and wiped at her eyes in small circles.

“Well, I work the 24/7 shift, so I’m used to this, too.” The last of her sentence got drowned in a yawn that she tried to hide behind her hand. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled, “I’ve been on my feet for way too long, I flew in this morning straight from work.”

Mandy gave her a sympathetic smile.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll walk you to your room and let you get some rest.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Jill said but held on to Mandy’s arm and steered her toward the elevators nonetheless.

When they arrived at the sliding doors she pressed the call button and leaned against the wall.

“It’s just three stories up, I can manage on my own,” she offered and pushed at her glasses that had slid a little when she’d looked down.

“Can’t risk you getting lost,” Mandy countered with a bold wink that her inebriated brain considered a good idea. Jill met her eyes and cocked her head, “Would you miss me if I did?”

“I uh, you… are you flirting with me?” Mandy chuckled nervously.

Jill chewed on her bottom lip and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Do you want me to?”

The doors slid open, interrupting the moment with a quiet ding.

Jill fiddled with her keycard as they stepped inside the cabin and Mandy briefly pondered not following her in, but reconsidered. For the first time in the roughly fifteen hours since they’d met a somewhat uncomfortable silence settled between them. The ride was quick, yet unbearably long.

“Thanks for walking me home,” Jill said when the red ‘one’ above the door turned into a ‘two’.

“You’re welcome,” Mandy stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jacket to hide their fidgeting.

“You’re cute.”

“You-”

She didn’t get to finish her thought. In fact, her ability to think just stopped entirely at the soft press of Jill’s lips against her own.

On instinct she moved her hands up to wrap them around Jill’s waist but somehow she got them tangled up and stuck in her pockets.

They broke apart and grinned at each other. The elevator doors she hadn’t noticed opening slid shut again.

“We should, uh…” she nodded for the door and Jill turned to press the 3rd floor button again.

“I’m just down the hall.” Jill gestured down the corridor.

“I guess this is good night then?” Mandy made an effort to sound cheerful instead of disappointed. They had spent an entire day together; it was irrational to become so greedy.

“Will you get to your place alright?” She was touched by the thoughtfulness Jill still possessed, even though she was unsuccessfully biting down on a yawn again.

“I’ll take a cab, don’t worry.”

“I’d walk you home, but…”

Mandy laughed. She was still trying to process the situation but the rush of blood ringing in her ears made her feel like she was an outsider to her own body.

“Good night, Jill,” she managed to say and then slowly returned toward the elevators. She resisted the urge to turn around until she heard the lock click shut behind her.

The grin she wore didn’t leave her face until she pulled the covers up over her face and let the exhaustion of the eventful day wash over her.


	3. Chapter 3

Sitting in almost the same spot as she had when she’d met Jill the previous day Mandy couldn’t stop her leg from nervously bobbing up and down. She was both excited and worried about meeting Jill in the light of a new day. What was she supposed to say? Should she address their tipsy good night kiss or would that be embarrassing? After all, it had only been a chaste little touch, a matter of seconds - soft and warm but without passion or urgency.

And was it silly to assume that Jill would seek her out first thing in the morning? Was she pathetic for putting her bag on the empty chair next to hers and telling people off when they asked if they could take a seat? Where was Jill anyway? Was she avoiding Mandy now that she’d had a chance to sleep over the encounter? One question chased the next inside her head and Mandy found her stomach twitching uncomfortably at the speed of which her brain came up with new ones.

To give herself something to do she removed her glasses and wiped them on the fabric of her blouse. She breathed on them, repeated the action and then checked them against the light. Just as she was about to slip them back on her face the room went dark as a pair of warm hands covered her eyes from behind. Her heart jumped at the unexpected touch.

“Guess who?” A surprisingly familiar voice quipped behind her, making Mandy smile.

When Jill removed her hands without waiting for a reply Mandy twisted her head to make eye contact.

“Hey friend,” she greeted and quickly grabbed her bag off the chair, “I saved you a seat.”

Jill beamed and sat down.

“Thanks, _friend,_ ” she replied with a sheepish grin, leaving Mandy to wonder how to interpret her intonation.

“Did you get home safe?” Jill continued as bubbly as she’d been the day before, making Mandy instantly feel at ease again.

“Yeah, the receptionist called a cab for me and I was back at my place ten minutes later.”

Their conversation was cut short by a speaker-enhanced voice welcoming everybody to the morning’s seminar. Mandy watched in amusement as Jill scrambled her pamphlets together and readied her note book and pen.

She was listening intently and starting to take notes when Jill slipped her a tiny folded piece of paper. Mandy was again reminded of her high school days and couldn’t help but smile fondly. Opening the note she read the words “Thanks again for walking me to my room” in neat, frilly handwriting.

“You’re welcome,” she scrawled back a lot less gracefully. For good measure she added a smiley face.

The next note came a few minutes later.

“Would you like to grab lunch together again?”

She answered with a bold lettered “Yes.”

From the corner of her eyes she saw Jill beam at her brightly. From there on she found it even harder to concentrate on the presentation up front. Somehow she managed to keep up even though her mid wandered off several times in between.

“This is so cool! I’ve done a recreational experiment like that once. Remind me to tell you about it later.” She smiled at the excitement that was almost visible in Jill’s fast written note. It made her want to soak up every detail of the lecture just so they could talk about it later and she wouldn’t feel as inexperienced around Jill as she feared she would. Somehow she felt compelled to leave the best possible impression on the other woman.

The lecture was long done and they had spent twenty minutes discussing it in depth when Jill slipped her another note, despite the fact that they were actually talking. Mandy raised her eyebrows in question but decided to humor her friend and read it anyway. She couldn’t shake the impression that Jill looked nervous about it.

“Can I borrow your phone?”

Without a second thought she fished the device out of her bag, unlocked it and handed it over. Jill gnawed on her lip as she typed something in and then handed it back with a smile.

Looking at the screen she wasn’t really surprised to find that Jill had entered a new contact, but she grinned widely when she saw that the number wasn’t simply saved under the name _Jill_ but had an emoji with glasses and one with a tiny cocktail next to it.

Wordlessly she held her hand open. Jill quickly caught the hint and placed her own phone into Mandy’s palm. She pressed her lips together to keep her face from splitting in half with a giddy grin while she typed in her number and searched the palette for the little smiley with the kissy face.

Nervously she awaited Jill’s reaction as she watched her look at the screen. The expression on her face was more than Mandy would have dared to hope for.


End file.
